"Pennsylvania's finalist status in Round Two of Race to the Top is a real testament to the hard work we've already done in implementing targeted reforms that help our students to achieve and succeed," Gov. Rendell said.
Pennsylvania, which also was a first-round finalist, proposes increasing student achievement, improving professional development and teacher evaluation, and turning around failing schools - all goals of Race to the Top and the Obama administration.
New Jersey was not a finalist in the first round, placing 18th among 41 applicants. Unlike Pennsylvania's, New Jersey's round-one application had almost no union backing.
On Tuesday, Gov. Christie seized on the finalist announcement as an opportunity to say he was right to overrule compromises in the state's Round Two application that were made to win the support of the New Jersey Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union.
"This announcement affirms our decision to stick with real reform and not capitulate to the watered-down, failed, status-quo approach advocated by the NJEA," Christie said in a statement. He also called for moving forward the state application's proposals to provide more school choice and exhibit "fidelity to placing student success ahead of union self-interest."
Christie had insisted that measures such as merit pay and tying teacher evaluations to student performance, including test results, be included in the application. The union's position is that those are not effective reforms.
